Red tape is the main barrier to more foreign investment in Egypt, where the economy grew around 2 percent over the last two years — too slowly to reduce widespread unemployment, according to TheAfricaReport.

To start a company in Egypt, foreign investors must get permits from 78 government agencies — a process that can take up to five years.

A proposed unified investment law designed to cut down on bureaucracy is expected to meet with resistance but could be implemented in March if it gets approval from numerous government agencies, said Ashraf Salman, Egypt’s investment minister, in TheAfricaReport.

The law will create a one-stop shop for foreign investors discouraged by political turmoil and militant violence in Egypt. The revolution weakened the economy and toppled Hosni Mubarak in 2011, according to the report.

Salman said it would be difficult to get buy-in for the law from government agencies. “I am rearranging the process and automating the process,” he said.

Egypt’s Gulf Arab allies have been keeping its economy afloat, according to TheAfricaReport. Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia backed the army’s ouster of elected Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013 and support President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi as a bulwark against the spread of political Islam in the region.

Egypt hopes for 4 percent economic growth in 2015, increasing to at least 7 percent for the 10 years.

Bureaucracy has hurt Egypt for decades when it comes to cumbersome hoops foreign investors must jump through.

Bureaucratic obstacles and investor disputes that have hampered investment in the past will be resolved by a proposed “higher investment council,” the minister said.

The draft law has been submitted to 16 institutions and 33 ministries from universities and lawyers to an economic ministerial committee, according to TheAfricaReport.

Egypt hopes to secure foreign and domestic investment to the tune of $10 billion to $12 billion at an investment conference in Sharm el-Sheikh in March. Getting the law passed before that could show that Egypt means business, Salman said.

The law would address concerns for foreign investors such as changes in government, giving protection to deals in legal disputes, and preserving the price of land agreed in contracts.

Foreign investment in Egypt is expected reach about $2 billion in the second quarter of the fiscal year, up from $1.8 billion dollars in the previous quarter, Salman said.

Egypt hopes to attract $18 billion a year by 2018 — a highly ambitious target.

The Egyptian government owes foreign oil companies $3.2 billion, Reuters reports. With 60 percent of foreign investment going to the petroleum industry, Egypt needs to fight corruption and pay back foreign oil companies, Salman said, according to Reuters.

“Paying this will affect our (credit) rating, will affect our foreign direct investment from the oil sector, and from other investors,” he said.